The New Neighbor

by Isabelle Peterson

RELEASED February 7, 2018.Currently available exclusively on Amazon and in the Kindle Unlimited program.

Six months after Erik Bennett’s short-lived marriage from his husband, he’s found it hard to move on. Erik’s colleague, Kyle Murphy, convinces him that maybe he should move out of the condo he shared with his ex. Erik takes Kyle’s advice and finds the perfect house in a quiet neighborhood on Juniper Court.

Kyle Murphy isn’t proud of it, but he’s in the closet to everyone, even his family. In fact, he's always portrayed himself as a ladies man. However, Kyle has had a thing for Erik since they first met. He's just been waiting for the right time. When Kyle comes out to Erik, Erik doesn't know what to make of it.

With Erik in his new home and away from the memories of his failed marriage, is the time now? But, with their history, would Erik ever think of Kyle in ‘that way’? And what would the neighbors think?

Finally, Erik’s moving day arrived. Erik had been keeping me up to date with all that was happening at his new place, and even I was excited about this move. Gradually, I saw the Erik I’d once gotten to know return.

I arrived at Erik’s condo promptly at 8:00 a.m. with coffee and pastries from the bakery across from where we worked, and I’d seen Erik go there on more than one occasion.

“Oh thank God. You are a lifesaver,” Erik said when he opened the door and saw me holding the small carrier with two cups of coffee. He didn’t even notice the bright yellow bakery box with doughnuts I was holding. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but last night, I packed up the coffee maker.”

“Not gonna lie,” I replied. “This will be my fourth cup,” I told Erik as I offered him the other coffee. “Cream and sugar, right?”He knitted his dark brown eyebrows together and squinted his brilliant blue eyes at me. “Yeah. How did you know?”

“Powers of observation. Seen you put your coffee together in the break room.” And your coffee habit has become my coffee habit, I silently added remembering how I never drank the stuff before I started work at First Bank.

We stepped into his condo and I had to make a concerted effort to tear my eyes from Erik in his running shorts and tight-fitting, faded Green Day concert T-shirt. Fuck, he has sexy legs! Begrudgingly, I turned my focus to the condo. It was a fantastic, open concept high-rise with an incredible view of the city. Now I understood why his place had been so easy to sell. Erik had been busy with boxing up his life and along the walls were organized stacks of clearly labeled boxes. I knew Erik was a meticulous man, but seeing it like this, in his house, just made me smile.

“Mmm,” he moaned taking a sip of the coffee, and the sound headed straight to my groin.Stop it! I warned my dick. It was going to be a long day if Erik’s one little moan was going to be giving me a boner.